Josh and Steve's Tam Dao Trip

After waking Sunday morning to wet streets and fog, I was afraid plans for our Road Trip to Tam Dao might fall through.  By the time Josh woke up around 9, it was sunny and clear and a perfect day.  After a couple of ca phe sua das and two omelettes for Josh and I (both looked suspicously like friend eggs) at my favorite Sunday Ochao Tea House, Josh and I decided to pack up and head north to Tam Dao National Park, 40 miles or so north of Hanoi.

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(Curses Google Maps!  Don't know why the perspective's not working again!)

Les was kind enough to lend me his bike so Josh used mine and he rode like a champ!  You'd never have known he had never been on a scooter before.

We left just before noon, and headed west, then north as we took the scooter bridge over the Red River and made a quick left over the same bumpy, half-under-construction, half washed out rural road Thanh and I had taken several weeks ago to head northwest to Tam Dao. 

Naturally I wanted to document our trip along the way, so had my cell phone/camera handy as usual.  Rule #1: My cell camera has an extremely slow shutter which I've learned means I need to keep the cell phone held trained on its subject long after I press "click".  Rule #2.  When biking with your first-time-biking nephew, you want to set a good example and not bike and text/talk/picture-take with your cell phone while riding.  Unfortunately, while remembering Rule #2, I forgot Rule #1, so my photo documentation of our trip leaves a lot to the imagination!

First pic of Josh riding behind me.

Second pic of Josh riding next to me.

I have no clue.

Cow on roadside itching itself on bridge.

Our first stop: waterbreak!  This cute lady couldn't have been any more cute.  She tried to find us cold water and wanted to serve us tea.  When I tried to pay, she flashed ten fingers, which I thought meant 100,000 Dong (about five bucks and in line with my American line of what they should have cost).  When I gave her a 100,000 Dong note, she smiled and shook her head and gave me ten fingers again.  10,000 Dong.  Fifty cents for both our waters of Aquafina.

Picture-taking begins to improve on beautiful, quiet country roads we had all to ourselves on a spectacular sunny Sunday afternoon.

We continued through the country and up the mountain to Tam Dao village. After Josh and I arrived in Tam Dao, we walked through the market and marvelled at all the same things I marvelled at in late June when I last was here (see postings June 26-28).

Remember this church?

When Thanh and I were here in June, it looked like it might be vacant but under renovation.  It's definitely under renovation, but it's sure not vacant.  Josh and I wondered in and found out that it's the only surviving colonial architecture from the revolution in the 1950s.  After that revolution, religious buildings like these were given to local communist party "chapters" and it was only in 2008 that this one was returned to the Catholic Church.
 

For lunch, Josh and I stopped at the "Belvedere Resort" which, in spite of its corny name, was a very nice hotel perched on a cliffside overlooking the valley below.  While I had a bowl of spaghetti and Josh, some fantastic springrolls, a Vietnamese couple was having their wedding invitation photo shoot near the pool while we ate.

We hit the road again for our trip back to Tay Ho and where my photo-taking returned to poor form.

Extremely wide scooter load.

I don't know.

Another beautiful Hanoian sunset.

For dinner, Chi met Josh and I for porridge (which, surprise!, Josh loved). 

Porridge time!

Afterward, the three of us made the long trip across scooters-only Long Bien Bridge and halfway back again to park, along with hundreds of others, on the bridge and enjoy the Red River and a perfect Vietnamese night. 

At this point, my cell was nearly dead, so no flash.
Good thing we were sitting under a street light.

While we sat, we had dried squid dipped in chili sauce (which was actually pretty good; tasted like salty jerky) and a glass of "sua" which is a tea made from a fruit grown only in Hanoi.  Yum!

And did I mention that we were sitting on rugs on the side of the bike path?
Yes, hundreds of scooters, zipping by, two feet from my head.

Oh yes.  And another four feet farther to my left were train tracks
and the slow moving trains that go with them!

After all that excited, I was bushed.  Josh and Chi, however, had other plans and headed downtown to the Dragonfly bar for a drink and "shisha" (don't worry, mom: he was home by midnight).

It was an exceptional day and a great introduction to Vietnam for my nephew who, by all accounts, is loving his trip so far.